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Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is stocking up on card protectors in preparation for taking its deck on the go for ports to iOS and Android devices, Massively reports. A North American open beta for the initially planned PC and Mac versions is also scheduled for next month, but as Blizzard CEO Rob Pardo jokingly reminded us, "in Blizzard-speak, that might be January."

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>activision-blizzardandroidbetablizzardhearthstonehearthstone-heroes-of-warcraftiosipadiphonemobilerob-pardoSun, 10 Nov 2013 21:00:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2012/05/11/blizzard-and-valve-settle-dota-argument-blizzard-dota-is-now-bl/http://www.joystiq.com/2012/05/11/blizzard-and-valve-settle-dota-argument-blizzard-dota-is-now-bl/http://www.joystiq.com/2012/05/11/blizzard-and-valve-settle-dota-argument-blizzard-dota-is-now-bl/#commentsBlizzard has dropped a short-and-sweet press release (reprinted below) informing us that it has landed on a "mutual agreement" with Valve regarding the contested "DOTA" trademark. DOTA, of course, stands for "Defense of the Ancients," which is a fanmade map and mode for Blizzard's Warcraft 3, originally based on a Starcraft map. Developer "IceFrog," who's overseen the DOTA map since 2005, has gone to work for Valve on DOTA 2, while Blizzard has been working on its official variation of the game, previously called Blizzard DOTA.

The mutual agreement means that Valve will get the rights to use the "DOTA" trademark commercially, so DOTA 2's name won't change. Blizzard reserves the right for fans to use the trademark noncommercially, but will give up the DOTA name for its official variant. That game will instead be called Blizzard All-Stars, "which ultimately better reflects the design of our game," said Blizzard executive VP Rob Pardo. "We look forward to going into more detail on that at a later date."

Valve's Gabe Newell also gave comment, saying that Valve is "pleased that we could come to an agreement with Blizzard without drawing things out in a way that would benefit no one." Blizzard All-Stars doesn't have a release date yet, and DOTA 2 is due out next year.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>agreementblizzardblizzard-all-starsblizzard-dotadotadota-2gabe-newellnoncommercialpcrob-pardotrademarkvalveFri, 11 May 2012 16:35:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/01/diablo-3-to-feature-player-to-player-real-money-auction-house-fo/http://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/01/diablo-3-to-feature-player-to-player-real-money-auction-house-fo/http://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/01/diablo-3-to-feature-player-to-player-real-money-auction-house-fo/#commentsDiablo 3 will sport a couple of in-game auction houses to sell items from player to player. One will be run entirely with in-game gold (very similar to the current WoW Auction House), and one will let players sell and buy items with actual money.

During a press event at its headquarters in Irvine, CA last week, Blizzard Entertainment showed off both the Diablo 3 beta and its associated Battle.net service. While most of the Battle.net features were pretty standard (there will be persistent friends lists, cross-game communication, and full matchmaking services for all of the game modes), the auction system stood out.

Yes, Diablo 3 players will be able to spend real money on in-game items, but rather than a traditional item store, Blizzard plans to create a system wherein players sell items to each other -- the eBay of Sanctuary, if you will. Players will be able to put items up for sale in each of the game's various regions around the world (with a different real-world currency for each), and other players will be able to spend real money to buy them, with the real-world money going back to the original item owners.

Blizzard will take fixed fees (as yet unrevealed, though they'll be "nominal") out of the sale price both when an auction goes up for sale and when it is actually sold. And when an item is sold, players will either be able to keep earned money in a Battle.net account for spending on Blizzard products and services, or cash out entirely, with another, percentage-based fee through a not-yet-announced third-party payment provider.

As you might imagine, Blizzard's been thinking about this one for quite a while. Vice President of Game Design Rob Pardo shared a lot of thoughts with us, including why they're going with a system like this, how it will all work, and what this means for the future of Diablo 3, Blizzard Entertainment, and the gaming market at large.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>blizzardblizzard-entertainmentdiablo-3microtransactionspcreal-money-transactionsrob-pardovirtual-itemsMon, 01 Aug 2011 03:00:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2010/10/27/pardo-blizzard-moving-towards-day-and-date-digital-releases/http://www.joystiq.com/2010/10/27/pardo-blizzard-moving-towards-day-and-date-digital-releases/http://www.joystiq.com/2010/10/27/pardo-blizzard-moving-towards-day-and-date-digital-releases/#comments
We heard a while back that Blizzard and its parent company have been considering digital distribution for World of Warcraft expansions ever since the first one, but it wasn't until this past weekend at BlizzCon that it was finally announced that the latest expansion, Cataclysm, will be available to buy on Blizzard's website, and playable right as the servers are turned on. Blizzard's Rob Pardo says the company's been moving in that direction for a while, and that "the day's coming" when Blizzard will release all of its PC games day-and-date with their retail versions. "Once we get a little closer to Diablo 3 we'll make a determination," he promised.

Meanwhile, the WoW community, as a group of people who already play MMOs online, is ready for the transition, says Pardo. "They are already able to handle very large pieces of data," he says, "so we felt that this is the best thing for the community, the opportunity to download and pre-order the game before we launch." It will be nice to have the game installed and ready to play as the servers go up -- even if they do drop right back down from all the players trying to use them.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>activision-blizzardblizzardblizzard-entertainmentCataclysmdiablo-3digital-distributionpcrob-pardoWorld-of-Warcraft-CataclysmWed, 27 Oct 2010 00:01:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2010/10/25/blizzard-willing-to-work-with-bungie-on-mmo-development/http://www.joystiq.com/2010/10/25/blizzard-willing-to-work-with-bungie-on-mmo-development/http://www.joystiq.com/2010/10/25/blizzard-willing-to-work-with-bungie-on-mmo-development/#commentsDuring a GDC Online panel about Halo narrative, Bungie creative director Joe Staten alluded to a hypothetical MMO from the developer when he said, "Wouldn't it be great if we could make a world that was always there for you? Wow. That would be great." In a BlizzCon interview with Edge Online, Blizzard's EVP of game design, Rob Pardo, commented on the prospect of working with the new Activision partner on such an MMO. After noting that Blizzard remains focused on its own titles, he spoke welcomely of the idea, also in purely hypothetical terms.

"Activision is in the family and Bungie is doing stuff for Activision," Pardo said. "If they called us up and wanted some advice or wanted to have a conversation, absolutely, but I do that with a lot of my game developer friends throughout the industry."

Asked if Blizzard would provide customer service for a Bungie MMO, he said, "I really have no idea -- that's a lot of speculation. It's possible, I guess." Pardo added that he would be thrilled to see a Bungie MMO "as a gamer." He said that before WoW, Blizzard had no MMO experience -- "so clearly if we can do it, I'm sure a company like Bungie or Valve or Nintendo, or any of those top tier developers, are more than capable of doing it."

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>activisionblizzardblizzcon-2010bungiemmopcrob-pardoMon, 25 Oct 2010 16:00:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2010/10/25/blizzards-pardo-dota-belongs-to-community-not-valve/http://www.joystiq.com/2010/10/25/blizzards-pardo-dota-belongs-to-community-not-valve/http://www.joystiq.com/2010/10/25/blizzards-pardo-dota-belongs-to-community-not-valve/#comments
Intra-industry sniping is, as any commenter will tell you, the fuel that powers the engine of gaming blogs. Imagine our disappointment, then, upon seeing Blizzard's design VP Rob Pardo being completely reasonable when he explained to Eurogamer why he thought Valve trademarking the word "DOTA" was a misstep. "DOTA" is, of course, short for "Defense of the Ancients," a WarCraft III variant created by the game's fan community. Valve recently announced it was working on a sequel to the mod, prompting them to file a trademark for the acronym (but not the full title) earlier this year.

"To us, that means that you're really taking it away from the Blizzard and Warcraft III community and that just doesn't seem the right thing to do. Valve is usually so pro mod community. It's such a community company that it just seems like a really strange move to us... I really don't understand why [they would do it], to be honest."

Pardo's sentiment echoes that of two of the original mod's designers, Steve "Pendragon" Mescon and Steve "Guinsoo" Feak, who spoke out against the trademark in August. Blizzard, for its part, is clearly undeterred by Valve's claim, as evidenced by the fact that it's currently fashioning a StarCraft II modcalled "Blizzard Dota."

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>blizzardblizzard-dotadotadota-2modspcrob-pardostarcraft-2valveMon, 25 Oct 2010 11:55:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2009/11/22/blizzard-says-no-diablo-3-in-2010-who-knows-when-itll-be-rel/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/11/22/blizzard-says-no-diablo-3-in-2010-who-knows-when-itll-be-rel/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/11/22/blizzard-says-no-diablo-3-in-2010-who-knows-when-itll-be-rel/#comments
Remember that silly, insane rumor from back in 2008 about Diablo 3 being released by Blizzard before StarCraft 2? Turns out that Blizzard's Rob Pardo thinks that's a bunch of hogwash. Rather, that's at least what we can infer from his recent conversation with Techland on the subject. "We always announce all of our games too early," he says. "I think it's safe to say that, yeah, [Diablo 3] is not going to be out next year."

Considering StarCraft 2's delay to 2010, we think it's fair to assume that Diablo 3 will in fact not be arriving before a StarCraft sequel. Pardo adds that it's not a question of lacking resources, as "each game has individual development teams; it's just that the way that we develop games, we develop them very iteratively." Worse yet, there doesn't seem to be a finish line in sight for D3. "Now when we announce [a game] we just go, 'Here's the game we're working on, we're going to start talking about it and who knows when it ships.'" If any of you were still holding your breath for Diablo 3's release, now might be a good time to exhale.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>2010activisionactivision-blizzardblizzarddiablodiablo-3pcrelease-daterob-pardostarcraftstarcraft-2Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:00:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/25/blizzcon-2009-the-new-battle-net/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/25/blizzcon-2009-the-new-battle-net/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/25/blizzcon-2009-the-new-battle-net/#comments
Blizzard finally unveiled the much-hyped new version of Battle.Net at BlizzCon and, as expected, it's a huge leap forward from the service that was first introduced with Diablo in 1996. Although, in typical Blizzard fashion, this is still a work in progress and could change by the time it eventually comes out. In 2013. (We kid, we kid.)

Everything shown was modeled from inside of Starcraft 2, which Blizzard is calling the Battle.Net 2.0 launch title. The developer will be working to expand it to older titles, possibly including legacy games like the original Starcraft and Warcraft. It's also safe to say that Blizzard must be working on a client-only version of Battle.Net, so you don't have to be inside a game to see when your friends are on.

Check out the gallery below, and you can read about all the new details of what Blizzard wants to be the "premiere matchmaking service out there," after the break.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>Battle-NetBattle.NetBlizzardBlizzconBlizzcon-2009Diablo-3Greg-CanessaonlineRob-PardoStarcraft-2Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:28:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/29/blame-world-of-warcraft-for-starcraft-2s-tardiness/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/29/blame-world-of-warcraft-for-starcraft-2s-tardiness/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/29/blame-world-of-warcraft-for-starcraft-2s-tardiness/#comments
We already blame World of Warcraft for most of the problems in the world -- loneliness, social atrophy and, generally, man's inhumanity towards man -- but now we've got another grudge to harbor against the MMO juggernaut: It delayed StarCraft 2 development for an entire year. That's 365 days of sweet, sweet strategy (by which of course we mean constant, unwavering zerg rushes) that we could have already been enjoying.

This startling revelation came to Eurogamer by way of Blizzard vice president of game design Rob Pardo, who explained, "A fair amount of the design team went onto World of Warcraft for a year to really help finish that game off." We guess that explains why Starcraft 2took six years to finish. See, and here we assumed it was because they were all hopelessly addicted to WoW, not because they were actually making it.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>blizzardmmorob-pardortsstarcraftstarcraft-2strategyworld-of-warcraftMon, 29 Jun 2009 13:05:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/25/blizzard-still-hesitant-about-console-mmos/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/25/blizzard-still-hesitant-about-console-mmos/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/25/blizzard-still-hesitant-about-console-mmos/#comments
While expanding the unrelenting grasp of World of Warcraft to home consoles would undoubtedly net Blizzard an extra googolplex subscribers, there's a number of hurdles keeping MMOs from succeeding on non-PC platforms -- hurdles that were identified by Blizzard's executive VP of game design, Rob Pardo, in a recent interview with IndustryGamers.

Some hurdles are self-evident, such as the lack of a "keyboard and mouse" input device, and the massive amounts of storage space required for most online games (WoW is up to 10 gigs). Some have to do with the policies of the hardware manufacturers themselves, such as Microsoft's lengthy certification measures which would make WoW's frequent patches a nightmare to publish. However, according to Pardo, Microsoft has asked Blizzard for MMO advice, and has shown the company "some stuff they have in development." Halo MMO re-confirmed! (No, not really.)

Pardo's MMO outlook for the current generation of consoles is poor, but he thinks the next round of hardware is more likely to get it right -- at which point, people will be able to play WoW on any platform they want, and pretty much everyone will stop leaving the house. Hooray?

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>blizzardconsoleMicrosoftmmommorpgrob-pardoXbox-360Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:15:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2009/05/11/greg-canessa-leaves-popcap-for-blizzard-working-on-online-proje/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/05/11/greg-canessa-leaves-popcap-for-blizzard-working-on-online-proje/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/05/11/greg-canessa-leaves-popcap-for-blizzard-working-on-online-proje/#commentsJust two short years after Greg Canessa left his position as group manager of Xbox Live to try his hand on more casual fare at PopCap, he is once again jumping ship -- -- this time to Blizzard Entertainment, masters and commanders of online powerhouse World of Warcraft. Our trusted source tells us he's working on an "unannounced project in the online space," allegedly joining forces with VP of game design at Blizzard, Rob Pardo.

Has Mr. Canessa snagged one of the two open positions working on the "fifth, unannounced Blizzard project" advertised recently on the company's website? Could he be working on porting Bookworm to World of Warcraft, making the PopCap games within Blizzard games trifecta complete? We've asked for comment from both PopCap and Blizzard and hopefully one of those two will help shed some light on Mr. Canessa's next project.

Update: Garth Chouteau of PopCap PR got back to us and confirmed Greg Canessa's move to Blizzard, saying, "We are sorry to see him go and we wish him the very best. It's been a pleasure working with him and his move is largely predicated on it being a big personal and professional opportunity for him. This isn't going to have any material impact on our console presence and our strategy with respect to the consoles and the DS and the areas that Greg was heading up. We're still very committed to those."

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>blizzardblizzard-entertainmentgreg-canessapopcappopcap-gamesrob-pardoxblaxbox-liveMon, 11 May 2009 20:00:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/27/gdc09-pardo-details-why-blizzard-has-ignored-this-generation-of/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/27/gdc09-pardo-details-why-blizzard-has-ignored-this-generation-of/http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/27/gdc09-pardo-details-why-blizzard-has-ignored-this-generation-of/#comments
Before Metal Gear Solid 4 was everyone's favorite Xbox 360 rumor, it was Blizzard's money machine, World of Warcraft, that was constantly said to be hitting consoles. Blizzard already assured us it wasn't happening ages ago, but during the Luminaries Luncheon, Blizzard's vice-president of game design, Rob Pardo, detailed why his company has ignored this generation of consoles.

"There are so many games, like we make at Blizzard, that we don't take to the console because they don't support input devices," Pardo told the attendees. Pardo's comments were made when the panel was asked what they would do if they were in charge of developing the next generation of consoles. Pardo, who hailed Nintendo for creating an input device "that allows new types of games to be made," explained that the lack of device diversity on consoles would only lead to "crappy ports" of his company's titles.

"If I was them," Pardo concluded, "I'd be sitting around trying to think of 'What's a cool input device that allows all types of new of games that are really fun to play?'"

Imagine sitting at lunch with Will Wright, Neil Young, and Warren Spector. They're each eating, laughing, and talking about game design with animation and enthusiasm. On the other side of the table are David Perry, Rob Pardo, and Brian Fargo.

Collectively, you have the founder of Interplay, Blizzard's top designer, the father of Earthworm Jim, the man credited with Deus Ex, an iPhone pioneer, and the mind behind Spore - guided in discussion by screenwriter and former game journalist Garry Whitta.

Also at the table, a dozen of the top game industry journalists sit quietly, taking notes and typing into small laptops. And excellent food is entirely secondary: it's the conversation that matters at this luncheon.

We met up with Blizzard's Rob Pardo, vice-president of game design and one of Time Magazine's 2006 "100 Most Influential People in the World," at BlizzCon to ask him about all things Diablo 3, since we'd already gotten the good from him about Starcraft 2 and Battle.net. He didn't grant our wish to let us take home a copy of the Diablo 3 demo, but he did say a beta would be out for the game ... at some point. Find out what little we were able to squeeze out of him after the break.

Blizzard's Vice President of Game Design Rob Pardo wants us to think about Starcraft 2's two followups, containing the Zerg and Protoss single player campaigns, as expansion packs, so does that mean they won't contain as much gameplay as the Terran-based initial game? Plus, you'll have to wait at least whole year between "expansions." Said Pardo, "With any luck, it would be like a year for each successive one, but that's going to be a target date, that's not a promise."

Since SC2 won't be out until 2009, you won't be able to play the Protoss single player until at least 2011. That's a long time to wait. Check out what Rob said after the break, and start yer speculatin'.

Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>BlizzardBlizzConblizzcon-2008breakingnewsMacPCProtossRob-Pardostarcraft-2starcraft-iistarcraft2TerranTrilogyZergMon, 13 Oct 2008 10:00:00 ESThttp://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/13/blizzcon-2008-rob-pardo-talks-battle-net-monetizing/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/13/blizzcon-2008-rob-pardo-talks-battle-net-monetizing/http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/13/blizzcon-2008-rob-pardo-talks-battle-net-monetizing/#commentsFiled under: Mac, PC, Adventure, Fighting, Online, RPGsNot everyone was thrilled with the weekend news that Blizzard is looking to monetize Battle.Net in some way. So we made that one of the first questions we asked Blizzard VP Rob Pardo. The good news is, they're not going to make Diablo III subscription based. Find out everyone he told us after the break.

Rob Pardo and Chris Metzen hosted the Starcraft II gameplay panel here in Anaheim this afternoon at BlizzCon 2008 -- they showed off, for the first time in public, some of the adventure-based gameplay and ingame cinematics that will come with Blizzard's next RTS release (or next three RTS releases, as the case may be).

After the break, what we saw of Starcraft II's Terran campaign, and Rob Pardo explains the reasoning behind Blizzard's decision to turn Starcraft II into three separate games.

Amid all the hype for Diablo 3, you may have missed hearing about the StarCraft II developer panel helmed by Blizzard's Rob Pardo at this weekend's Worldwide Invitational in Paris. Joystiq was there to catch all the details on the latest build of the game. See what team Blizzard had to say about the newfound power of the Zerg Queen, the upgraded Protoss Mothership and the reason behind de-emphasizing heroic classes. All this after the jump.

Q&A with Rob PardoQ: How will the planet systems be used?A: The star map in the story campaigns is you mission selector. You will explore the story and have a lot of different paths to follow. You can choose from 2-7 missions depending on where you are in the story. There is a starmap in all three campaigns. but different for each race. For example, in the Terran campaign you will take a lot of mercenary missions for money to pay for technology.

Q: What role will hero and multiclass players play?A: We are de-emphasizing heroes in Starcraft2. That's what Warcraft 3 is for. There will be some missions where you play named characters like Raynor, but not much. Mostly dialogue and story characters, not much as gameplay chars.

Q: Is the Zerg building infestation ability working on Protoss?A: Yes.

Q: Will there be an Apple and PV version release at same time?A: Yes, all of our PC games will also be available on Macs.

Q: Is there a Terran version of Queen/MothershipA: No. Mothership not as unique as Queen and players can build multiple Motherships.

Q: What role is the roach unit supposed to have?A: It doesn't have much health, but it does have very high regeneration. Its good to go up against enemy units with low damage output like marines, zealots, etc.

Q: Is the black hole still planned for the Protoss?A: It used to be on the Mothership, but was taken away when the Mothership became a defense unit in the development of the game. It may come back later in a different way in the development process but no promises.

Q: What lies ahead in the evolution of units?A: The Terran Thor unit is hard to find a role for. Right now it is much like the sieg tank/battle cruiser. It could get more abilities to differentiate it.

Q: The Merc Haven can't train reavers, just enables you to build them. Why?A: The Merc Haven has gone through five or six designs, but we never fell in love with one. It needs more tinkering.

Q: What kind of units will come out from Protoss infested buildings?A: I misspoke earlier. They [the Zerg] cannot infest Protoss buildings, but we're still deciding for sure.

Q: Will the Ghost unit get telekenisis or telepathic abilties like in the books and manga?A: There is much experimentation right now with the unit and it's centered around the lore. There is a good chance, yes.

Q: Is it possible to play the story line in co-op mode?A: No. It's been discussed, but it's too difficult to have two players both be the main character.

That's all from Paris. We'll have some hands-on write ups with the new Zerg demo they have set up. Check back soon.

The Terrans and their BFG'sPardo then moved on to the final Starcraft race, the Terrans. The theme here they wanted to push was guns, guns and more guns. No Queen or Mothership here, just lots of units with lots of firepower.

The first unit Pardo talked about was the Jackal. It's a fast, mobile firebat that spits out fire lots of splash damage. With its speed and mobility it has the potential to take a big chunk out of your opponent's forces.

The next unit was The Thor. It's a large ground assault unit with two abilities. In addition to its anti-air flak cannons, it can self-repair. And if it is destroyed, its wreckage stays on the battlefield and can rebuild itself.

No Hero for you!Finally, Pardo talked about some larger issues about the game they were working with. They didn't want the game to too heavily emphasize micromanaging units. They want players to have time to deal with the macro issues of resources, expansion and strategy. So they designed most units to be simple movers and shooters, not like the more complex units of Warcraft 3.

They also de-emphasized Hero classes for the same reason. Hero characters will mostly be met in the single player story mode and even then, as characters to talk to instead of taking control of them in battles.

In terms of development, the team is focusing currently on spell casters and special abilities that come later in the game as well as upgrades for base units. The story campaign is about one-third done.

The last point Pardo wanted to make before the panel was open to questions was about the evolution of Battle.net. With the release of SC2, Battle.net will be transformed to become what they hope is the premiere gaming platform for PC online play.

The Protoss are a force to be reckoned withPardo moved on to talk a bit about how the Protoss are progressing in the development of the game. Their psionics are the key theme to their race and Blizzard pushed that further, but also pulled back on the emphasis on spellcasting.

First he showed an example of their new force field ability used to control the battlefield. A video showed a swarm of zerglings rushing a Protoss base, but the Protoss force threw up a series of connected force fields that formed a funnel forcing the zergs into a choke point where they were easily destroyed.

While high damage Protoss spells like Psi Storm are returning, Blizzard also wanted to introduce some early game casters. Nullifiers were mentioned. And Stalkers were given a teleport ability that had interesting strategic potential. In another video of game play, force fields were raised forcing an attacking army to go around it. The Stalkers then teleported themselves to the other side of the force fields, behind the attacking army, and took them out from behind.

The return of the MothershipThe Protoss Mothership also makes an appearance. While not as powerful as the Zerg Queen, it has been given powerful support abilities. It is now a mobile battlefield teleporter, able to zap in troops to wherever it is at. It is also heavily armored and has an emergency ability called Time Bomb which renders it immune from damage for a short period of time. Since it isn't as versatile as the Zerg Queen, Protoss players will be able to have more than one Mothership in play at once.

Quite a week in the World of Warcraft, which Joystiq sister site WoW Insider covers like a Warcraft Adventures-style bedsheet each and every single day. We continued to get lots of great information about patch 2.4 (including big news from the new raid instance,The Sunwell), and Heroics made a nice return to the news, with all the new badge loot. Oh, and we even had a liveblog go down straight from GDC. Here's our best stuff.

Earlier today fans of Massively Multiplayer Online Games were given a rare treat: a look into the future of the genre. Five veteran members of the gaming industry debated the finer points of MMO game creation as it exists today, and how the games of tomorrow will be bolted together. Participants included Cryptic Studios' Jack Emmert, NCsoft's Matt Miller, BioWare's Ray Muzyka, Nexon's Min Kim, and Blizzard's Rob Pardo. Each designer brought their own unique points of view to the conversation, and their visible conflicts made for a not only entertaining but informational dialogue.

The biggest point of contention during the discussion was the subject of Microtransactions; while Nexon's business model is based entirely on that concept, Cryptic's Emmert was a staunch opponent of the practice in general and as a "magic bullet" in specific. Mr. Emmert also dug several times at Blizzard and Rob Pardo, cracking jokes like "Isn't it true that Blizzard is going to buy the entire continent of Africa?" and essentially stating that the Massive gaming industry is deeply sick as a result of WoW's success.

Rob Pardo, Senior Vice President of Game Design, spoke earlier today on Blizzard's approach to multiplayer game design. Pardo shared what the iconic company has learned over the years of releasing titles like WoW, Starcraft, and Warcraft regarding game balance, PvP and UI design, player psychology and more. Head over to WoW Insider to check out the full transcript from the talk and the Q&A session plus a gallery of all the slides (and Pardo's handsome mug).